In the early to mid-'90s, no "Young Lion" was hyped to death by jazz critics more than Joshua Redman; to hear some critics tell it, he was as important a saxophonist as John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, or Sonny Rollins. The problem with such excessive hype is that it gives a young talent like Redman way too much to live up to at an early age; the tenor man was only 22 when this self-titled debut album was recorded, and he needed time to grow and develop.

The second Virgin Classics CD from the Orchestre de Paris under its new Music Director, Paavo Järvi, is entirely devoted to Fauré, with his Requiem as the centrepiece. The soloists are baritone Matthias Goerne and, singing the Pie Jesu usually assigned to a soprano, countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.

King traveled to Nashville in the early 1980s and recorded overproduced pop ballads written by the likes of honky tonk angels Conway Twitty, Willie Nelson, and Mickey Newbury. King plays guitar about as often as Perry Como and Tom Jones would have. – Frank John Hadley 1993

Jacques Coursil, trumpet player and beacon composer of the New York Free Jazz scene of the 60s, interrupted his career for more than 40 years to devote himself to the philosophy of mathematics and to Creole literature. He returned to the music scene in 2007, with the album Clameurs which blended years of underground work with his pronounced taste for the texts of the major Creole authors on Negritude.

‘Appia Kwa Bridge’, released this April, is a strident return from the Ghanaian highlife guitar legend. Featuring six new compositions, his sound is more dense and tightly locked than ever with Berlin-based musicians Afrobeat Academy, a rock solid unit since regular touring worldwide following his ‘Love And Death’ album in 2010, including a string of dates for WOMAD. Jochen Stroh works his analogue magic once more from his base at Berlin’s Lovelite Studios.

As its title suggests, ‘Resurrection’ marks the return of seminal heavy metal band Death SS and its charismatic leader Steve Sylvester. The band’s latest album, ‘The Seventh Seal’, came out to critical acclaim some 7 years ago in 2006.A big change happened also on the production front. For the first time after the release of ‘Black Mass’ in 1989, Steve produced the album himself without the supervision of a well known, external producer, simply relying on the experience he has matured in almost 35 years of career in the music business. These 12 new songs represent one of the finest bands in heavy metal still on top of its game.